The use of weighted baseball bats for training purposes is known. The idea has been to provide a heavier bat than a user would typically handle. This was intended to contribute to the building of the batter's hitting muscles, and also to give the batter the feeling that the un-weighted bat is easier to swing.
Classically, the weighting of a baseball bat was accomplished by the use of a donut-shaped weight, which was slid onto a bat from the handle end, and which would move down the length of the bat until the interior of the donut frictionally engaged the bat surface. When in position, the user could swing the bat which, by virtue of the placement of the donut thereon, would have a heavier weight.
There are several limitations inherent in the use of donuts. First, the position of the donut along the bat is not readily adjustable. Because the interior diameter of the donut and the exterior diameter of the bat are fixed, the placement of a particular donut on a particular bat will always result in the donut being positioned in substantially the same spot along the length of the bat. If a user wishes to move the donut to a position that is more proximate or distal the handle, this may not readily be accomplished.
In addition, the presence of the donut on the bat makes it unsuitable for use in a batting situation. While a player can take practice swings with a bat that has been weighted with a donut, he or she may not actually attempt to hit a ball with such a bat/donut combination, since the presence of the donut could interfere with the otherwise normal response of a ball to being struck by a bat.
It is believed that there has previously been provided a hollow wood bat with an internal weight, wherein the distribution of the weight within the bat could be adjusted from a position that was remote from the bat handle. However, these bats were prone to breaking, and the adjustment mechanism was not convenient to the user.
A need therefore existed for a training bat having an internal weight, wherein the position of the weight along the length of the bat is adjustable by the user. The bat should be sufficiently strong to be useable in actual hitting situations without breaking, and adjustment of weight position should be relatively convenient to the user. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides other, related, advantages.